Five Oaks Ranch is a small family owned operation located in Campbell, Missouri consisting of Holstein bottle calves, Kahtadin cross hair sheep, and Boer meat goats. Each is being utilized in an intensive rotational grazing program. We began using Border Collies due to injuries I sustained while serving in Iraq. I was no longer able to gather, move, and sort the livestock by myself. As many of you know, all Border Collies will not handle all livestock. After trying and training several dogs, I was in search of a tough dog with plenty of heart that bites both ends as needed; but has enough stock sense to only bite when needed. I needed a dog that could work sheep, goats and calves, but consequently move them with authority and confidence. I discovered John Tarvid had a young dog named Cindy (Tim x Snowball) at Jim Hill’s annual fish fry and dog working. She was tough as nails, good looking, and persistent. At 6 months old she had to be pulled off of the cattle. It was there that I knew what I wanted. I knew I could take some of the bite away, if needed. However, I hadn’t been successful in adding bite and grit to dogs that did not have it.

A few months later I called John Tarvid and asked if he had any young dogs for sale. At that time, all he had were a couple of young dogs out of Jim Hills Tim dog and Snowball he wanted trained. I jumped on the opportunity to finally train some dogs that had all the tools needed to get work done successfully. After 30 days both dogs were going ¼ mile and gathering calves and goats as well as successfully completing courses commonly used in trials. I had never entered a dog in a trial, but knew I would have to in order to gain the respect of the other handlers and dog men in this great fraternity. After prodding from Jay Britton, I finally entered my dog Deets (which is out of Jay’s Pat dog) in the open class at the Reynolds County Fair in Redford, Missouri. With a good draw on cattle and excellent dog work on Deets part, we brought the traveling trophy and silver belt buckle back to Five Oaks Ranch. This made Deets the Reynolds County Grand Champion cow dog for 2012. John and his wife June came to Campbell and met the family and saw our operation and decided to let me train more dogs for him and become a partner with him. After several trips to Ellington, my family and I decided to purchase 12 Acres on Logan’s Creek a couple of miles from John’s house and farm to use as a training facility when we are visiting John.

John gave me a chance to work with and own cowdogs that most people only hear about, but it was the kindness and guidance that Jim Hill and Jay Britton gave me that taught me how to get the best from these tough dogs. Since beginning with these dogs I met and become friends with some of the most influential people in breeding, raising, training, and most importantly culling these tough Missouri cowdogs. These people are Jim Hill, John Tarvid, Ken Swiney, and Bob Cavender. These men will help you in anyway and do everything they can to improve the breed.

If we can help in anyway please contact John or myself here at Five Oaks Ranch.